


Tea and Times

by greerwatson



Category: RENAULT Mary - Works
Genre: Gen, ITOWverse, Metafiction, Renault Times, Yuletide Metafiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-31
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2018-05-31 19:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6484327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greerwatson/pseuds/greerwatson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mrs Timmings and the Secretary ponder Alexander's reaction to the recent Yuletide sign-ups.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea and Times

Mrs Timmings was in the kitchen, giving her feet a rest.  A cup of tea sat disregarded on the table as she perused the _Renault Times_.  It arrived at the vicarage every Thursday around two in the afternoon.  (Who delivered it she couldn’t say.)  Of course, a copy turned up on her own doorstep, presumably at more-or-less the same time; but, as she had no chance to look at that until she got home for her supper, it was, in her opinion, only natural that she should preempt the vicarage copy.  It was not as though anyone else would be wanting it right then:  Mr Straike was usually visiting the parish at that hour, and his wife busy with the Women’s Institute.  Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, she usually nipped _elsewhere_ to read it at her leisure—with the added advantage that she could have plenty of milk in her tea, and a good spoonful of real sugar instead of that funny-tasting artificial sweetener.

Yuletide nominations had long since been reported—and received with pleasure in most quarters (and with no great surprise from the omitted Moderns).  It was true that there had been quite a fuss after the sign-ups.  A nine-days not-so-wonder to everyone else, though:  after all, _their_ Alexander’s trilogy was usually out-prompted by That Movie.

In this week’s copy of the _Renault Times_ , therefore, Mrs Timmings was reading happy reports of recent discussions on MRF.  About her own book, too!  (Details were obscured, as usual, to protect the guilty; but she was so used to the paper’s sketchy reports that she didn’t wonder what had been omitted.)  It was a lovely improvement over the sad quiet on the Community in the past couple of years.  So nice to see the mods at their proper duties, she thought.  It had really brought things back to life.

The door opened.  Mrs Timmings looked up as the Secretary walked in, saying, “Ah, I thought I’d heard the kettle.” 

There was a more relaxed look about her these days.  Well, naturally the poor woman had been _especially_ concerned about the future of the comm.  Characters like herself, Mrs Timmings thought, would still be read in their own book, after all; but the Secretary’s life was bound to the ITOWverse.

“Pull up a chair.  I’ll just hot the pot,” she said, rising to put the kettle back on the hob.

The Secretary sat down, with a craned glance at the paper to see which edition it was.  “Did you hear the latest about Alexander?” she asked.

“Latest?  No.  What’s he up to now?”

“The Emperor is talking conquest,” said the Secretary drily.

“What again?”  Mrs Timmings fetched a second cup and the tin of biscuits, which she offered to the Secretary.  History had not been her strong suit at school; but, even back then, she’d heard of Alexander the Great, and since coming here had picked up considerably more.  She added, “I thought he’d given up on the idea of India.  Is he conquering Rome now?   _That’s_ not in his book.”

The Secretary, hovering between a chocolate digestive and a Bourbon, smiled a little at the idea.  “Actually, I think someone wrote that already,” she said.  “As science fiction.  Not the Author, of course:  she always cleaved to the _known_ facts.” 

The already-hot kettle came whistling to the boil, and Mrs Timmings took the teapot over to the counter to refill it.  As she took off the lid, the Secretary added, “No, he’s planning a campaign in _this_ world.”

“Well, I never!”  Water gurgled steamily into the teapot.  Mrs Timmings came back and set it on the table, sat down, and poured out—for both of them—before going on.  “We’re not that big round here, surely:  just the clubhouse and grounds, so to speak.  Is he going downstream somewhere?”

“He’s thinking of attacking _Alexander_ ,” said the Secretary with a straight face.

It took a moment for Mrs Timmings to grasp the import.  “Over that Yuletide business, you mean,” she said.  “But they’re the same story!”

“Don’t tell the _fans_ that!”

They both laughed.

“Well, no they’re not, I suppose,” said Mrs Timmings.  “No more than either is the Alexander in the history books.  Still, if he heads over wherever that movie is, we’ll be having _them_ coming back here, no doubt.  I’ve enough war in my own book, thank you!”

“ _Now_ you scare me,” said the Secretary.

**Author's Note:**

> "Tea and Times" was originally posted to the [maryrenaultfics](http://maryrenaultfics.livejournal.com) LiveJournal community for the 2013 Spooky Challenge, whose prompt was "Scare me!"
> 
> That year, there was a l-o-n-g delay before the Alexander Trilogy was approved for Yuletide and also a delay before Stone's movie _Alexander_ was approved. This prompted some amused speculation that it might be because the Yule-Mods had confused the two.
> 
> As well, [Melissa Scott](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Scott)'s _A Choice of Destinies_ is referred to in the story because one of the community members had requested it in her sign-up.


End file.
